“Content with an ordinary life, you can show all people the way back to their own true nature.” Lao-tzu, The Tao Te Ching
How simple and uncomplicated is your life? Probably not as simple and uncomplicated as you’d like it, at least if you’re like so many people in our modern world.
Countless people I know, even here in this remote corner of the USA’s northern Rocky Mountains, lead complicated lives. They’re perpetually stressed-out, with never enough time and far too many responsibilities. They rarely take time to get out into nature, be with loved ones, or nurture themselves.
We’re no longer living simple, ordinary lives. Instead we’re locked into extraordinarily complicated lives filled with stress.
It’s no wonder the mental health clinics and drug companies are doing a booming business!
Why have our lives have become such awful burdens? Where have all the joy and fun gone? What can we do about it?
Here’s Spirit.
Spirit
Your lives were never meant to be such complicated messes, devoid of joy and pleasure. That’s not what you intended when you incarnated.
Of, if you want to put it another way, that’s not what God wants for you.
We’re not saying you’re doing anything “wrong.” You’re not. But your lives do not have to be stressful and joyless.
Your modern world has imposed upon you — or, more accurately, you have allowed it to impose upon you — false values which serve no one.
False values such as measuring success in terms of money or influence or material possessions. There’s nothing inherently bad with any of that. Except for one thing — you’ve let it obscure who you are and why you’re here on the planet at this time in human history.
You don’t need us to remind you of the huge changes happening on your planet — the reminders are all around you. Many humans, feeling powerless to handle the changes are, as you say, “freaking out.” More and more are simply choosing to leave — to “get the hell out of Dodge,” if you will.
(Note from John: That saying most Americans will recognize, although others may not. It simply means people are choosing to die rather than ride out the transformation.)
You cannot stay on the planet and avoid change. But you have it entirely within your power to move with and through the changes with ease and grace.
Some of the things John mentioned will be valuable to you in your quest for more peace and joy. Getting out into nature. Being with your loved ones — being fully present to them. Nurturing yourselves.
The last — nurturing yourselves — is the most important. Take time for yourselves. Meditate. Take a walk. Watch an uplifting movie. Fix yourselves a favorite meal. You know how to do these things. So just do them.
Simplify your lives, friends. Most of the things you get stressed out over certainly won’t matter in 100 years. And probably not even tomorrow.
Rekindle the spirit of joy and fun in your lives. Take time to just be in the moment. Forget about yesterday and don’t think about tomorrow. Yesterday’s gone and tomorrow will take care of itself.
When you return to this simple, ordinary life you once knew — and stay there — you will find your days and years filled with joy, the joy that is your only purpose in this lifetime. The amount of joy you feel is your only true measure of success.
You will not only find your lives becoming paradise on earth, but will also, as Lao-tzu says, “show all people the way back to their own true nature.”
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